TIME PASSING.

TIME is passing, time is passing,
Bid thy restless heart be still;
Time is passing, time is passing,
God will work his holy will.

He who raised the lofty mountain,
He who painted every flower,
Will ne'er his wondrous work forsake,
Nor leave thee at the trying hour.

For soon, ah soon, the time may come, That bears thee to thy home away, That breaks the bonds of kindred love, And takes thee to the realms of day.

Though thy heart be torn by anguish,
Though thy spirit sink to dust,
Time is passing, time is passing,
Put in God thy fervent trust.

THE CHRISTIAN'S DEATH.

BEHOLD the western evening light!
It melts in deeper gloom!

So calm the righteous sink away,
Descending to the tomb.

The winds breathe low-the yellow leaf
Scarce whispers from the tree!
So gently flows the parting breath,
When good men cease to be.

How beautiful, on all the hills,
The crimson light is shed!
'Tis like the peace the dying gives
To mourners round his bed.

How mildly on the wandering cloud
The sunset beam is cast!

So sweet the memory left behind,
When loved ones breathe their last.

And lo! above the dews of night
The vesper star appears!

So faith lights up the mourner's heart,
Whose eyes are dim with tears.

Night falls, but soon the morning light Its glories shall restore!

And thus the eyes that sleep in death

Shall wake to close no more.

THE HOPE OF IMMORTALITY.

CHRISTIANITY has been properly denominated the guide to immortality; Jesus expressly styles himself the resurrection and the life. Christianity reveals a future life; and in this respect Jesus and his religion have done what has not been satisfactorily done by any other person or any other system of religious belief. On this interesting subject the words of nature are few; the analogy of the vegetable creation and the annual renewal of the earth may delight the imagination, but can hardly bring conviction to the understanding. Reason and philosophy find in the grave a barrier, which they cannot pass; and experience acknowledges her utter ignorance of the country beyond it, since it remains the bourn from whence

no traveller returns. But while we anxiously inquire, to whom shall we go, the gospel beams on us with life and immortality. The doctrine of a future life is a prominent doctrine of Christianity; other considerations inspire only a shadowy hope, this gives a substantial assurance. As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive; as after the similitude of the parent of the human race all men die, so after the similitude of the Redeemer of the human race, all men shall be raised from the dead. The certainty of a future life is far from being all that Christianity has given us; the hope of a bare renewal of life would be a small boon; the gospel has done much more than this, and though it has not communicated to us all that perhaps our curiosity might prompt us to ask, yet it has taught sufficient to satisfy every reasonable wish.

First, it teaches that the coming life shall be without end; that the power of death will be completely abolished; that

our life will exist under a new and improved form; that the soul, no longer encased in a frail and earthly tenement, shall be exempted from all susceptibility to disease and destruction, and clothed with perpetual health and vigor; this corruptible shall put on incorruption, this mortal immortality. Existing under a new form, it gives us reason to expect an enlargement of our faculties, new facilities for acquiring knowledge, extended opportunities of serving God, a nature exempt from error, folly, and sin, and a continual and accelerated progress in moral goodness. Further, it encourages the expectation of an intimate connection with those good beings, with whom it must be the first of pleasures and of privileges to be associated; of entering into the rest which remains for the people of God; and of joining the assembly and church of the first-born. It inspires the hope of being closely united to Jesus Christ and of free access to God; we shall then know him even as we are known. Though it has